


Unfamiliar Faces

by gracelinne



Category: Les Misérables (2012), Les Misérables - All Media Types, Les Misérables - Schönberg/Boublil, Les Misérables - Victor Hugo
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-14
Updated: 2013-05-14
Packaged: 2017-12-11 21:04:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 510
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/803255
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gracelinne/pseuds/gracelinne
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Grantaire likes to sketch at Cafe Musain, but sometimes he doesn't recognize who he's drawing.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Unfamiliar Faces

Grantaire practically lives at his studio now; he sleeps there and only leaves to get a change of clothes (there's a shower in the bathroom for long overnight projects and a kitchen).  His canvas is huge this time, pinned to one wall, his paints scattered on the floor beneath it.  The studio's floor-to-ceiling windows only take up one wall, across from the canvas, and he puts his bed alongside them, watching the city until he falls asleep.  

He eventually moves completely out of his shabby apartment, the one he couldn't afford because of the expense of his studio.  He just brings his belongings to the studio.  It only takes one trip -- he doesn't own much.  

He lets Eponine decorate it.  She has a better taste for stuff like that, and he can't really care less.  She invites a friend of hers, Cosette, to help her, and they make a project out of it, working as he paints, laughing as he drinks.  It's almost fun.

By the end of the week, he has white Christmas lights strung all over the ceiling and white furniture.  It's all kind of girly, but he likes going home at the end of a long day at university.  It's hard to keep clean, but he manages.

When Eponine drags him to a cafe she works at, he ends up sitting in the corner with a sketchbook, drawing the inhabitants.  It's a long night, but when Eponine closes up, he finds himself missing the crackling fire and the hot, Christmassy scent of balsam and cinnamon.  When he gets home, he paints.  

The painting is coming along well.  Before he goes to bed that night, he just looks at it, appraising every line and every brush stroke.  He rarely does that, just looking.  It's usually him trying to change it, make it better.  But now he just looks.  

He doesn't want anyone else seeing it, really.  Not until it's done, anyway.  So when Eponine and Cosette come over, he pulls down the curtain that he's rigged up, hiding it.  They can see that there's something behind it, but they don't push.  He's glad for that.

One night he's sketching in the corner of Cafe Musain, listening to Eponine work and chatter aimlessly with the customers.  It's nice, he thinks, to hear people living their lives.  Nice for when you can't live your own.  

A burst of laughter comes from the corner opposite his, and he glances up to see a group of people sitting there.  They're being unnecessarily loud, and he doesn't understand how he hasn't noticed them before.  He rolls his eyes and returns to his sketch -- it's a face he doesn't recognize, and he doesn't know why he's drawing it.  He does know, however, that whoever it is happens to be very good-looking, with bright, passionate blue eyes and curly blonde hair that falls over his eyes.

And only when he looks up into a pair of blue eyes, framed with dark lashes and gold curls, does he realize maybe he does recognize him after all.


End file.
